


Press Two To Save This Message

by isxbella



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: (maybe a little less), Drabble, M/M, i love tags almost as much as jack loves the doctor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:47:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27065116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isxbella/pseuds/isxbella
Summary: “I’ve been alive a long time, Doc. You should know something about that. People are so easy to lose, and even easier to fall in love with. But you have to get over them, in the end, because that’s how it goes.”
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Jack Harkness
Comments: 7
Kudos: 23





	Press Two To Save This Message

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I put my tags in as characters because I’m a big idiot.

The Doctor’s ringtone is the default one, he never bothered to change it when Martha gifted him it. He simply put it somewhere and forgot about it. 

At who knows what hour (time is difficult to keep when floating in the time vortex), the Doctor regrets this decision as he leads a chase across the TARDIS to track down the infernal tune. The TARDIS hums her amusement, and he could swear she was making things harder for him on purpose. 

When he finally is brought face to face with his phone, he’s missed the call and wasted far too many hours chasing it since it last rang. It’s sat on top of a teetering tower of books that he promptly knocks over when he grabs it. 

The EE messaging service woman informs him in her patient monotone that he has one missed call from an unknown number and in order to listen to it, he has to press one. 

He presses one, and then presses it again with more force. He clicks cancel to a pop-up informing him about the last fifteen software updates he’s missed. (He’ll install them later, he loves looking at all the new emojis.)

“Doctor?” The voice is slurred and distinctly American. 

The Doctor stares at it bewildered. “Jack?” 

Then he remembers it’s a recorded message and patiently falls silent as Jack continues taking. The Doctor begins to calculate how much he must’ve had to drink. The immortal had built up a remarkable tolerance to alcohol over the years. 

“It’s me, Jack. I don’t really know why I’m calling, but now that I have I might as well talk.”

There’s a prolonged pause.

“I’ve been alive a long time, Doc. You should know something about that. People are so easy to lose, and even easier to fall in love with. But you have to get over them, in the end, because that’s how it goes.”

The Doctor’s expression remains icily passive. 

Jack continues. “That’s what makes it so hard to get over you. Because let’s be honest, Doc, I love you. I love the stupid way your talk fast and never let me use my gun. I love the way you walk around like you own the place. I love the way that you’re exactly like me and at the same time we’re polar opposites.”

There’s a brief moment of static. The Doctor sighs. 

“I love the way you won’t even respond to this, you’ll just keep traipsing through time and saving it like your old friend never called,” Jack says, his words become more and more weighted. “But you know what I love. Do you know what I hate? I hate that somewhere inside me I have hope that you’ll make something more than a laugh out of this. I hate that a part of me has confidence that you’ll even keep listening once you recognise my voice.” Jack sighs. “Goodbye, Doc.”

The Doctor selects two to save the message, and then his saved messages begin to play. Jack: angry that he’s been stood up. Jack: telling him about something he has in Torchwood’s vault that the Doctor should probably take out of humanity's hands. Jack: stuck in the past, asking for a ride with a heavy voice that knows it’s only a formality and that he has to find his own way out. Jack: calling to apologising for last night's call, followed by Jack: taking a quiet voice and telling him that sometimes he wishes he had never met the Doctor. 

His friend yells at him about abandoning him and tells him about Martha’s wedding as if he’s writing a book on the subject. He relays a message an alien gave him and asks his opinion of whether a bow tie would suit him. 

The Doctor has saved a lot of Jack’s messages, it would appear. He swallows and turns the phone off as soon as Martha’s voice replaces Jack’s with a story about her day at work. 

He decides to save Jack’s number before rebuilding the stack of books and putting the phone back on top. 

“Just in case,” he mutters as he returns to the control room. “Just in case.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you want something more concrete, the next time Jack calls the Doctor rings him back- but Jack doesn’t pick up. The Doctor debates hanging up, but he leaves a voicemail. And at a glacial pace, they work they way towards Jack buying the Doctor a drink.


End file.
